George Floyd Part 1 of 3– Your Applied Judgment



Procedural Legalities for those who might not know.

 

First, I would like to say respect and blessings to the Floyd family for me speaking on their loss.

Here in part 1, I will attempt to explain the legal aspects and implications of the case to provide a better understanding of the charges and trial considerations. Unfortunately, many assumptions from a civilian or layperson perspective deviate from the intricacies and nuances of the law.

Consequently, to make a better determination requires that we first establish the pertinent laws, criteria, and instructions needed to make an informed legal judgment. The distinctions of the law rely strictly on what can be proven, while what appears to be obvious evidence of proof can often differ from the letter of the law.

The first consideration did you actually commit the crime, and the primary element of proving you did commit the crime requires meeting the statutory legal standard for that crime. Then the mental state of mind and sanity are the following two main elements to be established.

The mental state of mind of knowingly is generally the most difficult mental state of mind to prove but usually carries the harshest penalty. The more serious the crime committed, the more precise the elements of the mental state of mind are to determine. This determination makes specific mental distinctions more challenging to prove.  

When ascertaining an individual’s mental state of mind, the law does not define when the origination of intent begins or the duration of that intent. Instead, the law only considers at what point a specific intent is detectable and its effect proven or demonstrated to substantiate that level of intent. In other words, not the duration of intent before or during the commission of the crime, but the intent present before or during contributing to the commission of that crime.

Proving intent is determined from the point it transitioned from obvious lawful actions to illegal or criminal acts. The intent comprises the observable actions and behavior individually or collectively exhibited, then applying the level of knowledge or should have known the outcome or risk of those actions and behavior. It is further judged by indifference or remorse for the outcome. The intent is the critical element in determining which statute was broken and to what degree.

The elements of a crime by statute are the first consideration, and the second is the degree relative to a mental state of mind. Thus, for example, murder is defined as the act of causing the death of another and has specific specifications and conditions, including elements that refer to various states of mind and jail terms. 

Murder classifications by degree are first-degree involving premeditation with intent. Meanwhile, second-degree is intentional killing lacking any malicious intent. Third-degree is with a depraved heart or mind disregarding human life. Lesser degrees involve manslaughter, etc. Third-degree murder is a charge only available in three states: Minnesota, Florida, and Pennsylvania being the three.

Third-degree murder is classified as the mental state of mind that displays depraved indifference but is not intentional; first and second degrees are deemed intentional. The enhanced specification of the felony murder rule is when during the commission of another felony, for example, felony assault in the first degree. Assault is generally defined as a physical attack inflicting physical harm or causing the fear of harm or threatening harm. 

Pursuant to the felony murder rule, an assault leading to death would be a first-degree felony assault. Elements of assault of a felonious nature should apply since the use of excessive or unnecessary force contributing to death is definitely a criminal act meeting the criteria. Assault can also be a lesser included crime or violation of the primary charge. 

The second criteria refer to Mens Rea, defined as the guilty mind. Mens Rea accounts for a person’s mental intentions to commit a crime or knowledge that one’s actions or lack of action cause a crime to be committed.

The elements and intent of that specific statute determine which criminal charges are brought. Although there may be a murder, the intent is what establishes what degree of murder. The levels of intent that establish degrees are purposefully, knowingly, recklessly, negligently, or as it applies to this case, depravity.

Actus Rea is the action taken to perform the criminal act or the physical action taken supporting the criminal act. The elements and intent derived from these illegal actions determine the number of violations charged from the same actions or incident.

Multiple charges can emerge from a single incident based upon how many statutes can be verified violated along with the accompanying jurisdiction to prosecute the violations. When multiple persons are involved, each role is ascertained as either having not participated or prevented, assisted in committing the offense, or being complicit in its commission.

Complicity is any part of the planning, execution, concealment, or escape designed to facilitate or participate in a crime. Any tools or methods to further that crime is viewed as evidence of complicity and a criminal tool. Complicity is the same degree of crime as the crime being aided and abetted.

The commission of the crime of complicity does not require direct physical involvement, just furtherance of the crime. For example, if the charge or crime is first-degree murder, then the complicity is to the same degree. If it is a misdemeanor, then complicity is a misdemeanor of the same degree.

It should be noted that any firearm carried during the commission or furtherance of a crime is an automatic felony by statute, even if that crime is a misdemeanor. The theft of a candy bar is a misdemeanor but a theft of a candy bar while armed is a robbery, constituting theft by use or implication of force. All four policemen were armed at the time of the critical incident making whatever violating actions automatic felonies.

Hate crimes are a separate set of considerations and probably unlikely in this instance to be proven. Kidnapping is defined as removing someone from the place found without authority to do so or restrict their movements without consent or authority to do so.

Kidnapping would apply in a very narrow sense if interpreted as any lawful custody ended when the criminality of excessive force began. Thus, unlawful restriction of his movements without legal right to do so by the excessive physical force negated any lawful authority. 

Detaining a suspect is different from the arrest of an individual. To detain someone, a policeman must have the right to do so, and it must be reasonable in duration and circumstances. Thus, at the point of Chauvin’s knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck, it is mandatory that he had been placed under arrest and informed of such but well beyond being detained.

Adherence to state law, departmental policy and procedures, and observance of his Constitutional and Civil Rights require that prior to that degree of force that it must be necessary to have had placed him under arrest.

Assuming a pattern of tolerance exposing systemic violations of excessive force or violation of Civil Rights is also found, in that case, a federal consent decree and oversight is pursued by the DOJ. DOJ inquiry is entirely separate from any state charges.

The RICO Act is the DOJ federal statute regarding ongoing criminal enterprises involving murder, kidnapping, and other patterns of crime or corruption. Thus, previously used against police personnel and police departments when a widespread and systemic commission or tolerance of excessive force and other crimes existed within a police department.

It targets any law enforcement coordination, tolerance, or collaboration of crime or unlawful conduct. The RICO Act was designed to specifically prosecute organizations that operate as a cooperative pattern of criminal activity with centralized leadership.

The Department of Justice sanctions organizations with a Consent Decree to monitor and alter how departments operate. A Consent Decree is to prevent unlawful conduct and violations of Constitutional and Civil Rights. Violations of lawful procedural processes and prescribed sequences of actions become highlighted in situations like this to examine the legality of actions or any violations of rights specific to the proper execution of police duties and use of force.

 

 

 

One should also be aware that specific evidence that may be considered overwhelmingly prejudicial may not be allowed to be presented at trial, avoiding the appearance of bias affecting a defendant’s due process to a fair trial. The presiding judge and presumed law will determine rules of courtroom procedures to prevent improprieties or appeals.

Motions to suppress evidence or testimony will undoubtedly affect the perspective of those questioning the proceeding or desiring a particular outcome. After jury selection, the jury will be charged with their responsibilities and instruction and maybe sequestered for the trial. As always, a defendant has the right not to take the stand and testify on their own behalf without prejudice against their innocence. 

It is also essential to keep in mind not to become too consumed by the charges but instead the totality of the sentence if found guilty. The number of counts with a finding of guilty can be substantial if ran consecutively instead of concurrently.

Consecutive meaning one sentence of time after another, while concurrent means the time of all sentences will be served simultaneously. For example, ten years on two counts consecutive is twenty years, while ten years on two counts concurrent is a ten-year sentence.

Part 2 will examine the logical questions raised by the facts known or should have known at that time. Some of these questions are not as obvious but have a technical legal bearing on the legality of actions based on their justification and timing of enactment. However, it will also raise many of the obvious questions that come to mind.

Was Mr. Floyd placed under arrest, and at what point was he placed under arrest? Who placed him under or informed him that he was under arrest, and for what reason? Was he otherwise being lawfully and reasonably detained? Was the search of his person lawful according to the chronological order of events or his arrest?

The above legal considerations and presumptions were explained as a jury would impartially consider them to reach a verdict by applying the law to the circumstances. The above-detailed explanation of the law is to expand the comprehension of the novice to provide a relevant basis of understanding for an informed judgment.

I am not a lawyer, and the above is my general understanding and experience applied to this incident. With that said, the above legal references may differ slightly in different jurisdictions but are basically as stated. Thus, providing a foundation for those who are unfamiliar with the law, we can begin to scrutinize the actions taken by all parties.

Part 3 will explain the observations, deductive conclusions, and the application of the law as it relates to the encounter for the legal justification and culpability of each party. For example, what is the police department’s protocol when dealing with counterfeit money of such a low denomination and quantity?

Do they routinely arrest, and do arrest records reflect the protocol of these routine arrests? What actions are taken when suspected medical distress is presumed? Should not force discontinue when no longer necessary for an arrest?

If excessive force is used to restrict breathing and blood flow, does that not constitute a contributory cause to affect Mr. Floyd’s death? We will also examine procedural and protocol stipulations resulting from abuses to consider how support for these policing abuses diminishes law enforcement credibility and incites more restrictive policy changes.

Furthermore, procedures and protocols must be followed and reasonably executed with factual accounts given. Contradictory accounts are signs of coverup and deceit. Falsifying tour of duty reports, deadly force reports, false and misleading statements made or given are crimes.

Usually admissible in court is all excited utterances during the incident pointing to the mental state of mind at the time or a need to conceal it. We will attempt to clearly surmise the displayed mental state at the time of any observed actions or inactions with a duty to act. Some other influences and implications will be considered to contextualize the perceptions that explain the varying responses which attempt to condone Chauvin’s misconduct.

A brief cursory synopsis of the event as they chronologically occurred provides the basis on which any determination can be made by first establishing the assumptions under which we can evaluate the deadly incident. Accordingly, the facts and circumstances that I am aware of are as follows to clarify the foundation of my understanding to apply my observations.

 We understand that Mr. Floyd was alleged to have paid for items with a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill, and the store requested a police response. Upon the police responding, Mr. Floyd was located in the driver’s seat of his vehicle. He was removed from the vehicle, placed in cuffs, escorted to the sidewalk where he was seated.

Any acts of resistance from initial contact to being seated on the sidewalk were de-escalated. Mr. Floyd was not combative verbally or physically. Mr. Floyd was escorted across the street without incident or struggle, although minor resistance.

The video view was then obscured by a squad car briefly. Mr. Floyd was assisted to the ground, and Chauvin was observed to have his knee and shin across Mr. Floyd’s neck area when the view was regained. The subsequent video did show Mr. Floyd objecting and resisting being placed in the squad car, claiming claustrophobia.

While prone on the ground at times, two other officers assisted in restraining Mr. Floyd’s mid-torso area and legs while Chauvin had already established his position on Mr. Floyd’s neck area. After several minutes of the sustained weight of approximately over two hundred pounds on his neck, Mr. Floyd not only showed no signs of resistance, but he also showed no signs of life.

They were legally responsible for his safety while under their control, custody, or detention. They had a legal obligation to discontinue any force when Mr. Floyd was no longer resistant or combative, and it became no longer necessary.

It has been determined that Mr. Floyd is suspected of succumbing to excited asphyxiation, also known as excited delirium, by compression of his neck and chest restricting his breathing.

Elevated heart rate, excited breathing, prone position on the stomach with hands behind his back, excessive weight on his back, and definitely neck pressure are elements of this phenomenon well known to law enforcement with heart failure usually the cause of death.

Breathing restriction is always the main trigger and can clearly be determined to have played a significant role in Mr. Floyd’s death. Every possible risk factor for this condition was present, and the risk of this condition was suspected by other policemen and brought to Chauvin’s attention, expressing concern.

This is a brief inquiry into the facts known to the public with a detailed logical examination of them. We are examining the facts for the highest level of conviction for those whose actions deserve it.

When examined chronologically, we can form a logical theory of the policemen’s actions. Actions supporting their justification, truthfulness, and intent; or actions exposing their culpability as exhibited by their conduct.

To meticulously examine their actions, Part 2 regarding facts and questions will reverse engineer the incident and assertions alleged, unveiling glaring discrepancies, immoral judgments, and skeptical justifications.

Remember that inaction is an action also. It is duel accountability for what you have done and for what you have failed to do. Examining the police’s reverse chronological sequence should demonstrate their mental state of mind and when it transitioned to become criminal. In a full review, we will also present Mr. Floyd’s actions and mental state of mind until his death.

First and foremost, Mr. Floyd, his toxicology or his actions are not on trial, and racism is not on trial. What is on trial is was the policemen’s conduct and actions, specifically Chauvin’s, within the realm of law and if that was a demonstration that we can condone as legitimate police procedures and conduct applied across the board against men, women, and juveniles.

Was it acceptable to remain on someone’s neck for nearly nine minutes even after they demonstrated no pulse and the other policemen to allow it, as well as dismiss the contributory consequences to Mr. Floyd’s death by doing so? That is the only question the jury needs to answer. But, first, we need to answer what precedence is set. And, secondly, what does that say about anyone who supports it and why?

 

Let me ask you a question, hypothetically speaking, if Mr. Floyd was one hundred percent wrong on all accounts, does that make Chauvin’s actions suitable or legal on all accounts?

Thurston K. Atlas

Creating A Buzz

 

Crimes Against Humanity The Extended Reality



Hard but True, Raw but Real

Let’s get down to business removed from the political correctness and pretense of social graces to speak openly without regard for contrived moral consciousness, forced remorse, or unwilling accountability.

Instead, let‘s put everything on the table out in the open to analyze everything regarding present and future projections regarding racism and discrimination.

Strictly speaking, it is a culmination of psychological conditioning, economic exploitation, and opposed interest which stubbornly continues similar to an addiction to delusion. The delusional obsession is to an entitlement of preferential accommodations and self-image of superior character selfishly pursued at the expense of all others not in your identifying group.

Blacks seemed suitable and were easily identified by their dark skin tone for exclusion. Your subgroup sustaining a subculture of suppression while claiming to be above all groups of animals and humans at the self-proclaimed pinnacle of the biological chain.

Thereby elevating your subgroup above all others by standing hoisted high upon your artificially privileged advantage, looming above all creation. It is like the great Oz, who was not the all-powerful portrayed but a sniveling insecure little round man hiding behind a curtain of vulnerability pretending to be invincible. This created great fear and respect as long as the curtain remained closed.

Pulling the curtain back reveals the fear and inadequacies that lead to the need for and continuation of this façade. Without this belief and confronted by reality, the acceptance of no such advantage before God or man means the masquerade is up. This creates the stubborn need to refuse to relinquish that idea because it is the core of your being, your identity.

It is shocking to your core and psychologically devastating to deny the foundation of your beliefs despite overwhelming evidence that it is not valid. Further, to admit your atrocities committed to cheating your way to the top is inconceivable to the psyche, so the ramifications are minimized.

That only leaves one alternative: denying its benefits and doing everything to keep it going; otherwise, the image is shattered, and so are you. It then becomes a desperation of survival where racism and discrimination must continue. To remove them would be symbolically likened to removing your air, but literally, your attitude of superiority is closely followed by its advantages.

Furthermore, the diminishing of your future demographic advantage brought about by fewer babies born per family while you are ambitiously pursuing wealth and careers. Finally, considering inter-racial relationships of all kinds, sexual alternatives without procreation, and the death of staunch racist ideological individuals over time lends itself to a bleak racist demographic projection.

The continuation of this projection is not favorable to the white male dominancy of society. The white male historically had no consideration for anyone, including the white female, with one exception: inclusion when and to the degree that you were needed to sustain their position.

Now their reckless actions have had unintended results that have undermined the very purpose they sought to preserve. Now it is a crisis of survival thirty to fifty years down the road from now. Change has long been set in motion, and change is coming. Adaptation to change has always been the key to survival, and survival reliant upon cooperation within the species.

I am not under the illusion that racism is about to end anytime soon but will allow for the whimsical notion that the ideological DNA of some individuals bent on racism or their survival dependent on racism may abandon it.

The glacier shift of the racist collective to be persuaded of the benefit for themselves in changing their unjust perspectives, the closer integration of racial identifiers and similarities, the demise of bigots, and discouragement by the punitive connotations attached are the mitigating factors for change.

There is no easy way to say it and no need to sugar coat it in the context of history if judged by the last hundred years and the next hundred years. A little over a hundred years ago, in 1906, it was acceptable to daily put a black pigmy named Ota Benga in a cage with monkeys in the Bronx Zoo on display to visually convince the public of the animalistic nature and close proximity of blacks to animals.

This undoubtedly contributed to his eventual suicide but definitely even more lasting was the effect it must have had on whites who witnessed it. The New York Times wrote in support of this barbarity as basic eugenics on displaying the missing link for perpetuating myths and stereotypes to be taken as fact.

There can be no misconception that there have always been decent and compassionate whites who have denounced slavery, racism, and discrimination. Over time their numbers have increased to the present multi-race coalition in solidarity with blacks about the horrendous treatment endured with the necessity to end it and install equality.

It is an advantage and privilege that they do not want or need at the immoral expense of other human beings. The key to committing these atrocities is to devalue, reduce, and dehumanize your victims to a deserving or irrelevant position unworthy of empathy or compassion. But the question then becomes who appointed you to make such a determination.

You see, that is where religion and other forms of reinforcement and repetition are applied to believe and validate anything to defend and promote their belief, no matter how sanctimonious and preposterous the justification may be.

The elements of this twisted reality are a classic example of schizophrenic behavior, where their self-perceived contradiction to and diversion from reality morphs into a nightmarish fragmentation permitting unthinkable behavior and lack of willful remorse, making it easy to repeat.

The extreme aggression, savage demeanor, and arrogant defense of the atrocities committed under the guise of conservative Christian values go without saying that they would appear to be contrary to any actions a Christian not suffering from extreme mental illness would ever commit. 

Compound that by its pervasive nature, and it reveals a group brainwashing seemingly under demonic psychological indoctrination resulting in mental slavery to racism powerless to resist its destructive programming. 

A programmed compulsion of righteous evil and disregard for actions expecting no consequences. The portrayal of blacks as savage, dangerous, sexual predators, stupid, animalistic, and the list goes on and on serves to conceal the depravity of the accuser when their actions are compared against the accused.

The racial slur “coon” has its origins in hunting and killing human beings for fun. How could the indiscriminate murder, enslavement, beatings, and rape of blacks not be more indicative of the savage provoking tendencies of whites claiming to be civilized? Now, who has demonstrated the absolute savage and animalistic predator actions of a barbaric inclination if not whites?

The transference of these ghastly behaviors, which are identifiably one-sided against blacks, serves as the propaganda-driven denial of the racist incubation reflected by whites without concealment. Just educate yourself on the extent and practices to better understand both sides’ journey and current condition.

Rejection of the facts may be the only way to align yourself with the insanity and brutal reality blacks have faced at the hand of whites in this country. The dehumanizing realization of white atrocities is understandably frightening to whites wondering how people can be treated so viciously and still stand for the flag, defend the country, and endure the bullshit.

Patriotism is the current code for allegiance to inequality and misplaced blame on others for actions and disappointments resulting from your own miscalculations. Exclusively claim to be the only guardians of patriotism has resulted in an erosion of its principles by the mangling of its meaning, application, and demonstration.

Forced adherence to your manipulation of superiority into patriotism on anyone who does not look like you has had the effect of creating resistance to something which was never a point of contention. It has always been inequality.

The current fervor of voting rights is more aligned with voter suppression than voter fraud because the day has passed when you could regulate an outcome of the election, as evidenced by the election of former President Obama.

The will of the people’s vote cannot be calibrated to assure victory for you, so it must be suppressed against you. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 would not have been enacted if it were not needed in response to racism and voter suppression. Whites agreed that this was the case, and countermeasures had to be explicitly implemented to ensure that the target of these oppressions, blacks, had judicial protections for voting.

So, it would stand to fact and reason that neither the Civil War nor the Emancipation Proclamation abolished the slavery mentality. The ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865 abolished slavery, but it then transitioned into Jim Crow and blatant systemic prejudices.

One hundred years after the Civil War ended, the need for legislation was a recognition that racism, voter suppression, and discrimination were still the Jim Crow law of the land. It would then be counterintuitive that discrimination and oppression had continued beyond the Civil War, but sadly, very true it had.

Affirmative action and similar actions would not be if these ongoing oppressions ended when some claim. But, unfortunately, many have continued despite these alleged remedies. It is an affront to decency to have the unmitigated gall to whimper about reverse discrimination and unfairness of opportunity allocations and access based solely on race designed to alleviate the disadvantages systematically imposed upon others by you.

To deny fairness to others by declaring your plight of unfairness and inequality is to either proclaim yourself stupid, irrational, or a racist. I would like to think the best of you and, given the benefit of the doubt, assume that you are simply irrational.

The overt discrimination and exclusion practiced have been solely based upon race, but to bemoan your suffering by the inclusion of others while crying about opportunities you had readily denied others exceeds an elevated threshold of irrationality.

To be held liable is not discriminatory or discretionary but should be expected. Cancel culture cannot be used for absolution to ignore your culpability granting blanket immunity oblivious to your actions.

It is deemed unfair by a cry of cancel culture regarding white’s accountability for their transgression when facing societal condemnation or discontinuation of patronage. Drawing the line and adopting unpleasant consequences by withdrawing voluntary support is not an obligation owed to the offender but a right of the offended.

White males lack the credibility to complain. They have always been on the till with improper privilege subsidized on the public draw. Their hand in the cookie jar and thumb on the scale of justice. They value freedom, prosperity, and fairness exclusively for themselves and are quick to complain when their expectation of preferential treatment is not met.

It is ridiculous to insist that such monumental injustices be swept under the rug while even the slightest rebuke of your privilege is exaggerated to an intolerable injustice. Stop it. They don’t make rugs or exaggerations that huge. This strategy to alienate yourselves from blame by denying your privilege by claiming victimization again contradicts the historical facts of your actions.

The mentality and benefits are so great that some would masquerade themselves as part of the Confederate heritage. One is born in Canada of Cuban descent and named Rafael as Texas Ted to Americanize his image for easier assimilation into the good ole boy’s club.

Could you imagine the difference in perception between Rafael Cruz and Ted? Another would claim his Confederate membership even though his lineage is German. The drumpf clan, whose real fortune is that his grandfather was exiled from his native land for draft dodging returning to America where he had fled.

Neither of these persons’ American lineage extends beyond their grandparents at best. Nonetheless, they have claims of their Confederate heroes and heritage. But white skin, anglicized name changes, and cultural adaptation allowed them to assimilate and minimize if not avoid racial discrimination.

This is the lure of white privilege while distancing themselves from their true heritage and diverting attention from themselves by ostracizing others and denouncing immigrants when their families are not too far removed from the immigration tree.

What better to illustrate a reversed crab-in-the-barrel mentality? Instead of franticly keeping them in, they keep them out, designating more assurance of privilege for themselves. A sort of all-in-the-family of preferential treatment requiring adaptation of Confederacy biases.

White skin alone is the prominent inclusion factor, with prejudice is a bonus. MAGA is an adaptation of the make Germany great again philosophy used by Hitler in his rise to power and espousal of white privilege in a maniacal pursuit.

Tell a big enough lie enough times very loudly over prolonged periods that the people will not only believe it but accept it as the truth was Hitler’s mantra. These same tactics are familiar tactics of American Republican politics and ideology today, raising the question that if the nostalgic return to a MAGA time was possible, then what time would that be.

Would it be a time for lynching, coon hunting, forced labor, or any other litany of atrocities since there was never a time when they did not exist in America? What elements of slavery and discrimination would be preferable?

Are these the conservative Christian values we are to return to, as demonstrated by history? Lesser forms of expressing these values are still present. Unfortunately, the Republican party has been maligned with acceptance and promotion of these aspirations by association with MAGA principles.

If not a return to slavery, the continual furtherance of white privilege by the dehumanization and discrimination of blacks specifically and minorities in general, now to even include the poor. Let’s call it what it is, and you should say what you mean.

No further proof that America is off the rails realistically beyond redemption than half the elected officials refuse to denounce an insurrection or exclaim that it is wrong to murder a black man by choking him out in broad daylight placing your knee on his neck.

There is plenty more, but what more do we need. Refusal to condemn and reject these actions actually condones them. The reason why they are acceptable is that it furthers your agenda. If a dog had been choked out, Republicans would have been outraged because it does not further their agenda, and their estimation of the dog is above the dehumanization felt for blacks.

Do you for one second think they care about unarmed blacks being killed and sprayed with bullets as long as it is understood that, for example, whites storming the Capitol are not to be treated like the n-word. Only one shot fired, but a black can be fired up multiple times in the back. No precautionary show of force or mass arrest, but some would still ask what disparity?

Not condoning or requesting a violent response but simply highlighting the disparity that seemingly can only be based on race. What happened to the stance of when the looting starts, the shooting starts?

On Capitol Hill, where an overwhelmingly almost exclusive mob of whites attempted to overthrow the government in the ultimate act of looting, there was less enforcement than if a Nike store was being looted. Furthermore, the outcry is deafening from those being held accountable.

Can you imagine their shock and indignation at being called to answer for the very attempt to overthrow the government? What is this country coming to when whites are being arrested for being patriots to the Confederacy? Amazingly, Blacks are even expecting equality and redress?

The discrepancies of response and expectation change when blacks are involved with the law unequally applied or by anyone even expecting it to be applied equally. How can one unarmed black be more of a fear-provoking threat and intolerance than a whole mob of insurrectionists?

The justification for Capitol Hill law enforcement restraint was praised, while questionable articulation for using deadly force against unarmed blacks is not condemned. Not advocating for less respect for white lives but equal respect for black lives.

There has to be a comprehensive understanding, standard, and application of the law that does not give carte blanche for law enforcement misconduct and abuse of citizens.

Qualified immunity must have clear objective parameters where protections are no longer enjoyed and resources expended for disqualifying conduct. Law and order, crime and punishment, as well as wrongdoing and judgment, must fall unabated on the actions committed and the person who committed them, not the exemption of their guilt by race or profession.

 

 

The guilty deed is tethered to the guilty’s name if integrity is to be maintained; otherwise, it occasionally and eventually will lead to some feeling they are left with no choice but to resist detriment. When left with no choice, the choice is then made clear. While police are necessary, their actions cannot be above the law simply because they are essential and less likely to impact a white person adversely.

By the same indication, police interactions are negatively exaggerated; citizens are emotionally inflamed and apprehensively predisposed. This reflects the reverberations from injustices and perceptions that influence citizen’s cooperation and politeness.

The point is that a recalibration needs to occur on both sides, but the abuses of authority are not immune to the adjustments required to improve interactions. On the contrary, the submission to injustices brings about a greater dissatisfaction and a resistance that escalates into a more hazardous condition for all concerned. On the other hand, mutual respect deescalates conflict and promotes cooperation.

What encourages resistance, divisiveness, and danger is injustice, racism, and despair. The cause and effect are apparent, and the dismay at the resulting outrage is disingenuous, and of course, based on if it is happening to you. A plea for solidarity healing society only becomes an objective when you are not making the concessions or the balance of power has shifted away.

Only, if you stand to lose or lost something, it would have been better and more convincing had that been your mantra when you had the leadership influence. Now the tables have turned, the plea for bipartisanship is uttered, and the priority of moving forward together healing a fractured country at a fragile time is encouraged at our disadvantage.

Renovations are always best when you are already working on improvements requiring one cleanup. Suggesting that grievances are delayed for the good of the whole would somehow benefit us is contrary when your concern was and has been to benefit only yourself.

So many times in the past, this conciliatory posture has only resulted in a delay, not improvement proving to be a sadistic prank time and time again. So, suppose this is truly a time of healing and bipartisan cooperation. In that case, the Republican leadership should try to cast at least one bipartisan vote as a sign of their sincerity.

Extending the olive branch for once instead of demanding concessions to conform against conventional wisdom and our best interest. Having exhausted all your deceitful persuasions, your advantage by inequality has run its course leaving you fearful of the void. There is plenty of work to be done and time is squandered not resolving the issues that can and will no longer be silently suffered.

The accumulated depletion of will and resources will not accomplish your objective since your preference is not the only consideration to be considered. Compromise and cooperation can not be adverse abstract principles. They are the way forward. You can not persist in taking pride in obstruction and destruction to exert a futile exercise of power.

History is undefeated and has proven that resistance to change and stubborn ill-fated indecision has led to obsolete power and doomed existence. The arrogance of America will not let it recognize that there have been many demises of world power among nations based on the civil disorder and refusals to make changes.

The societal collapse is often preceded by extreme economic instability and fluctuations, infrastructure and labor deterioration, hunger and chaos, and then governmental collapse. Balance and equilibrium are universal laws, and imbalance by its nature is unstable and prone to collapse. Due to the imbalances of racism and oppression, societies worldwide are now wobbling.

Now the question is which will come first, the change or the collapse? I do not believe it will be changed because of its opposition and the universal foundation of deceit it has taken to last this long. It is collapsing under its own weight of deception and denial. Think about a celestial gravitational collapse that occurs due to the contraction of its own weight or pulls inward, succumbing to disorder.

Why is America exempt from collapsing from contraction resisting the harmony and order of the universe or God’s will? No need to look to the sky since history and anthropology can confirm the earthly demise of civilizations that once had great power. The turmoil of the year 2020 was a premonition that cannot be survived repeatedly, especially with the tailwinds still being felt.

Progress and transformation to form a more perfect union not defined or restricted by the past is the way forward. Those who long for the past are afraid of the future. Uncertain of their prospects and secure with the status quo without regard for advancement but clinging to stagnation to prolong their significance.

By nature, the young become old, and the old gives way to the new. This country was built on racism and the surpluses from black labor. Vast wealth and resources have been accumulated and shielded from blacks without question. Can there be any further denial of that? Should there be a recognition of that in words and redress? Damages can not be undone or life restored, but mending can be pursued.

Since I have stated my pessimism or realism about significant change not being forthcoming, let me just express what could or should happen. The first restorative action which will have the most significant impact is to cease and desist the nonsense, to just knock it off. Despite all the lives lost and mangled, the economic inflictions have had far more reaching implications than the murders.

Personally, more apologies, ineffective methods, or promises are not needed. The deaths caused and atrocities committed cannot be rescinded, but the wealth benefits denied can be recuperated like when stolen artifacts are returned. The government, businesses, and institutions should pursue more than conversational remedies since they received real monetary benefits. Money would be a suitable substitute for words.

Financial is not the only form of payment, and the government should not be the only payer but make no mistake, slavery was about the benjamins, so the benjamins need to be paid.

Services are the most likely form of payment that only require tendering the services, terms, or business you already provide, such as free higher educational opportunities. Generations of descendants of slave owners have benefited greatly from what they established to pay it forward for their ancestors.

The primary distribution would be opportunity, development, and investments but mainly just stop the bullshit for us to receive a fair shake. Since no white person today has owned a single slave, it seems only reasonable. But, they most certainly are recipients of racist privilege, enjoyed the restrictions levied, or been enriched by the bias practices so entrenched in American society.

So it is not unfair that someone else would get a fair shot after your road has been paved by discrimination. Forty acres and a mule was the unfulfilled promise, and eliminating discrimination still a dilemma, but economic viability and sustainable resources are the reparations now required.

The Civil War basically set the parameters for economic profit-sharing the way the American Revolution did, only domestically this time. As a result, the north received a more equitable distribution of the profits and a more sensible voluntary method of extracting the surplus of exploitative profits from black labor based on black’s lack of options and suppressed conditions. The south received the ability to continue operating as usual with the adaptation of the new extraction method, supposedly voluntary labor with slightly lower profit margins.

They both received plausible deniability. The dehumanizing treatment was pretty much the same, and freed blacks still worked on the plantation scratching out a living at the master’s behest only now the new and improved way of debauchery was called Jim Crow.

The Industrial Revolution beginning in 1860, greatly influenced the end of legal slavery and the most likely cause of its abolition because it transitioned from sole dependence on human labor to machine labor.

It created new models of efficiency and manufacturing, making the old slave model obsolete, but it did not eliminate the need for a permanent underclass to manage the machines. Instead, it lessened the method of physical labor required and increased the productivity for greater profits more evenly distributed among the north and south.

Thus, the master-slave relationship became the boss-to-worker relationship model still practiced today as the basis of the economy with many of the same philosophical principles regarding labor.

The master to slave mentality and dichotomy persists today for whites to become indignant at the very suggestion that discrimination exists or the audacity to expect relief. There is a diametrically opposed residual effect of this mentality that has dissipated over time but still exists.

A polar opposite of a shared personality disorder, racist whites psychopathic character traits devoid of compassion or remorse and black’s submissive need for permission and conciliation. The refusal of whites and the request of black regarding reparation displays both mentalities. If they are delusional, then we are imaginary, or is that the other way around? It is hard to tell.

Centuries of bigoted behavior still leaves us in the position of requesting what an overwhelming number of whites refuse to give or recognize. However, the context of slavery and the psychological realities created a subculture of survival for blacks which in essence has manifested into our saving grace and sustaining resiliency. The missing piece has been cohesion securing an identifiable targeted objective with a solitary concentration.

Targeted penetration into isolated and sustainable components using relentless incremental campaigns of focus building scope and momentum. So, if reparations are forthcoming, then beautiful, but until then, we must forge ahead from a position of fortitude, focus, and resolve to realize that a shift in the paradigm of our perspective is the most efficient and assured way of securing equality.

Previously suffering from an extreme deficiency, we now have sufficient agency to pay ourselves first. Meaning no permission is needed from others for assurances of equality, but that as always, we must renew our efforts from where we are now with what we have to build alliances and coalitions for prosperity and equality starting with us.

We have enough, we have plenty, but the division of our resources and purpose cannot be counterproductive or diverted. Discipline is needed. Certainly not separatism, we have paid too much but inclusion on our terms to equally wet our beak.

Repeated requests always transform into pleading, which is always distasteful under any circumstances and rarely effective since it grants the power to refuse or grant the request. Far from being downtrodden or self-pitying, we should be encouraged at how far we have come, what we have had to overcome, and what final frontiers of racism we are near to conquering.

You never had the right to dominion over us, so now we do not need to seek your permission for our salvation. Reparations are for your salvation. Again, the most valuable gesture would be to knock it off, but either way, we have made tremendous gains to close the gap, notwithstanding the tremendous gap that remains.

Rest assured your children will not face the retribution of your actions but will have to adjust to the extinction of your privilege. Your survival as a race will not be endangered as you claim to fear, but your most significant fear of the elimination of your advantage will be realized. The privilege or displeasure of white America will no longer be the paramount concern on which society operates.

Your substantial resistance should be more productively directed toward rectifying the problem, not denial and concealment to continue your comfort. The hypocrisy of denouncing bullying, being too strong for bullying does not extend beyond being too weak for racism, perhaps the greatest form of bullying. Your racist fragile psyche and mind are dependent on the intimidation of racism. The poisoning of a feeble mind believing that white skin somehow makes you divine.

Deprived of privilege, your means of survival will not be like the constant struggle for survival from the lowest socio-economic status of society like ours has been. It will not be sabotaged by the systemic injustices you have consistently heaped upon us.

The crux of many issues in the black community has been influenced by slavery and Jim Crow, which will not be anything you will have to contend with as contributing influences of dysfunction in your communities only as a haunting nightmare of your actions.

Black is not only a race but has been a condition, a condition that has had an extreme toll. Levies for atrocities and crimes against black humanity were committed over centuries. An overdue tariff is owed in this realm but may be collected in another with your soul.

Deflection or denial of these conditions cannot be independent of issues confronting the black community since close examination will likely reveal a correlation to slavery, discrimination, or the psychological trauma caused by them.

Not to mention the generational poverty caused and endorsed. Therefore, the repeated insistence on deflecting onto other problems in the black community does not absolve you of your infractions or justify our exclusion from equal treatment under the law or equivalent opportunities.

A three-dimensional understanding of a four-dimensional problem leaves you one dimension short of a resolution. The Confederate heritage and the American legacy are synonymous with each other from the inception of this country and the founding father’s vision.

If the founding fathers were as wise and incredible as they are portrayed, then why was slavery allowed to be woven into the fabric of America’s DNA? It was intentional, and maybe why some whites think they need to take the country back for white exclusivity following its purpose.

The founding father’s guidance and influence is still the overriding authority today of adherence suggesting their vision has transcended nearly four-hundred and fifty years of governance but not the detrimental effects of slavery.

The constant square peg in a round hole predicament of stretching the interpretation of their intent on matters they could not have envisioned essentially expresses the intent of the current interpreter.

The emphasis is then on the current interpreter to subjectively convey their own understanding and guessing the original intent or interpretation. Clarity of interpretation then is the paramount objective or selective choice of a subjective interpreter but still conjecture.

The confusion and misconceptions of understandings and allowances of iniquities have traversed, deviated, and wandered over time with the subjective translations of intent and purpose. Still, the one constant has been economic exploitation by the manner of racism.

In their infinite wisdom, the founding fathers should have calculated the compounded effects and centrifugal implications of racism. So, therefore, they never envisioned one day having to address the restitutions accrued and the adjudication required to resolve reparations. Accordingly, it was recognized that restitution was owed but reneged upon with the forty acres and a mule promise.

They should have had the foresight to envision that it would become one of the perils of the country surviving just as the American Revolution had. Refusing remedies to offenses unjustly enforced creating a domestic threat from dissatisfaction.

Attempting to maintain their advantage suppressing anyone or anything that supported a change, even the government. The last time it was called the Civil War, and this time it is called Trumpism, MAGA, Patriotism, and Republican complicity.

If my words, tone, and honesty are harsh, then the reality has been more harsh and bitter to experience for us over a prolonged period of centuries. Feeble attempts to misrepresent, reduce, or quantify our damages expose the unwillingness to understand, preventing a resolution.

You must first understand then accept the problem thru the spectrum of the casualties caused before you can rectify them. Racist ideology and white’s resistance to being held accountable leaves me unconvinced that significant change or national reparations are on the horizon, but collapse is impending.

The combination of racism and economics fueling the downfall as symptoms of the illness. The disease is self-righteous arrogance not capable of change exposing a self-destructive premise.

If repeated reminders of discrimination and disregard for resolution are any indication that racist compulsion leaves bigots powerless to resist and hopelessly cursed destined to be like the scorpion’s sting, being in their nature to sting even if it destroys them as well.

There can be no genuine remorse without redress and consequences to express and satisfy the wounded, but the truth is that there can be no healing without remedy. While some are hoping and wishing, I am well beyond the age of believing Santa Claus is real or if real reparations or healing will be achieved any time soon.

P.S. Be sure to wear your seat belt. We are expecting some stubborn turbulence ahead.

Thurston K. Atlas

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